God's Porch: A 60 Day Devotional To Unlocking Your Best Life

By Russell L. Estes

Russell L. Estes has done it again with God's Porch. In this sixty-day spiritual growth journey, he takes you down gravel roads and up mountain paths, that all lead directly to where God wants to meet you... His porch.

Russell developed and strengthened a personal relationship with God after a difficult season that he knew only Go

• Language: English
• Publisher: Russell Estes
• Release date: May 8, 2024
• ISBN: 9798869305091

Russell L. Estes

Russell Estes is a bestselling author of Christian and inspirational books, and a motivational speaker with a hint of Southern humor that keeps you waiting on his next line. He currently lives in Tuscaloosa, Alabama where he is married to his lovely wife, Kristy. She and their two children, Dawson and Emilee are the joy of his life.

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God’s Porch

A 60 Day Devotional To

Unlocking Your Best Life

RUSSELL  L.  ESTES

Copyright © 2023 by Russell L. Estes

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Scripture quotations marked (ESV) are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked (KJV) are from The Authorized (King James) Version. Rights in the Authorized Version in the United Kingdom are vested in the Crown. Reproduced by permission of the Crown’s patentee, Cambridge University Press.

Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com. The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

PREFACE

Cancer is a scary word. Hearing that word as a doctor discusses his findings with you is something that will always be etched in your memory. It stays fresh. You can recall every word mentioned. I remember hearing the words my doctor said to me like it was only hours ago. But it’s not only a medical diagnosis that can cause havoc in your life, it can be anything that stands in the way of the life God intends for you. Perhaps an addiction. Maybe finances, relationship issues, or a past that you can’t let go of. Accepting that these roadblocks exist is frightening. But what comes next is what defines who you are.

How do you respond? What will you do when faced with anything in life that keeps you from reaching your full potential? For most of us, we look for the best possible way to conquer our fears, and we settle for that. But God wants more for you. We all contain gifts, desires, and talents that we rarely use because we do not fully give ourselves to God.

Ephesians 3:20-21 tells us that "God can do anything — far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us."

We all will face things in life that could, and sometimes do, wreck our whole life. During these times, we call upon God to fix our problems. But He doesn’t want to just fix your problems. He wants to use them to bring out your full potential in life. But too often, we are scared to reach for what we may think is unreachable.

That’s when you must ask yourself, What are the deepest longings of your heart? And the more you want in your life that you’re afraid to voice out loud will remain hidden deep inside of you if you place limits on a limitless God.

Over the years, I’ve learned to trust God with the secret desires of my soul. And I can testify to God’s faithfulness when it comes to giving me more of His vision, His presence, and His calling, all for a purpose bigger than mine.

Have you ever stopped to wonder what God’s response would be to your heart’s cry for more? I believe the Savior of the universe would bend down in the most caring of manners and say, More what? And how much more? My supply is unending. My mercy is limitless. My grace is more than you need.

The more God wants for your life is beyond comprehension. That verse that I included a few paragraphs before, Ephesians 3:20-21, tells us all we need to know about what God can do in our lives: God can do anything— far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us.

It changed my thinking and my life when I realized the power of this truth: God can do anything. And not just a little bit more than we dream of. Far more.

So, what are your craziest ideas, deepest longings, and grandest plans — the things you’ve barely allowed your soul to imagine? Because even those grand plans aren’t enough. All of heaven is looking down upon you, shaking their heads and saying, Is that all? Is that all you want? Is that all you can dream up?

In this book, allow me to stretch your thinking, because we serve the ultimate Big Thinker. No plans of yours even compare to God’s. The amazing truth is, that God can take every limitation that’s been put on your life — by you or by others — and expand your heart and purpose in a way that’s way bigger, way higher, and way more effective than anything you could imagine. You can never out-dream God.

INTRODUCTION

I’m a morning person. I find that the early hours of the day really offer a peace and stillness conducive to meeting with, and hearing from God. I often sit outside, watching the sunrise, and drinking coffee strong enough to make my ancestors twitch. During these times, I feel as if I am One-on-one with God. I can talk to Him like He like He is there with me… because He is.

I imagine we are sitting and watching the sunrise together. I can almost hear Him telling me, I did that. It's not that He is bragging. He just likes to remind us that the same God who created the sunrises and universes is the same guy who put his best work into us. And that is unfathomable to try to understand how wonderful that is.

I feel as if each morning, I am sitting on God’s porch with Him. I have always found that the porches of the world offer the best advice. From the overall-wearing men of generations passed, to the music put together by a group of ragtag musicians with banjos, porches have always been something that I enjoyed spending time at.

Doing my devotions early on my porch is a sure way to put God first in my day. On those mornings that I acknowledge God from the moment I place my feet on the floor, my day is different. I deal with temptation differently. I respond to difficulty differently. I engage with God throughout the day differently. Setting aside early morning time for personal devotions lets me dedicate the whole rest of the day to God. It could help you do the same.

Making time for personal devotions and getting into the habit of daily devotions are perennial challenges for any follower of Jesus. If morning is the time you feel most with it and energized—that’s the time to give to God. It’s easy to make personal devotions just another to-do item on your list: Okay, I gotta read so many chapters of the Bible, pray for at least this long, and write this much in my journal. However, it’s important to remember that devotions are more about purpose than a specific process. Romans 14:1-9 suggests that the mode of personal devotion is really a matter of conviction. What might work well for one person may not suit another. The point of devotion is not to check off a list but to be with God.

Devotions are about inviting God’s presence into your day. You might sit quietly like me, with a steaming cup of coffee, to watch the sunrise, sharing the experience with God. Or perhaps you choose to wake up by reading a spiritually evocative book. If so, ask God to join in and enlighten you. Maybe the quietness of your pre-sunrise household allows you to better heed the Spirit’s leading as you read God’s Word. If you need some structure, a daily devotion gets you into God’s Word, helps you reflect on his presence in your day-to-day life, and leads you into prayer. Lastly, don’t rush. Let your morning devotions take as long as is needed to encounter your Savior.

While a habit of daily devotions is good, it’s more important to let God take the lead each and every time. Habits can be so...habitual. We just want to do the same thing again and again, as though we are following an unalterable formula. We lose sight of the purpose: to actually spend time with God. When we ask God to direct our devotions each morning, we give God the lead to set a whole different tone for the day ahead. If you’re anything like me, the issues confronting the day riot through your mind from the first moment you wake. This noise really hinders our ability to put the Lord first. Some sound advice I’ve heard before is to write down the thoughts that are cluttering my mind and lift them in prayer. This way, I surrender the agenda and my mindspace to God. When we let God set the agenda in those moments, his agenda becomes the foundation for the day. Early-morning devotional time lets you get ahead of everything else and allows you to submit it all to the Lord.

Early-morning devotions give you the chance to turn the whole day over to the Lord. If you’re a morning person, you can give God your best energy. Even if you don’t care much for the morning, acknowledging God first thing, and asking him what he wants to do equips you to deal with the day’s challenges on a more solid footing.

God’s Porch is a sixty-day devotional designed to get you off on the right foot. Although it is scripture-based and packed full of God’s Word, it should not fully replace God’s Word, only compliment it with deep thought and inspirational stories.

I invite you to dedicate sixty days to this book. Truly invest in it. Because what you are really investing in is unlocking your full potential of walking into the plan that God intends for you to have. God’s Porch was written in a format that you can spend a few minutes each day, without having to find a good stopping point. Each devotion should take no more than fifteen to twenty minutes of your time but hopefully will lead to a longer talk with God.

Sixty days. Fifteen minutes a day. That doesn’t seem like a long time to exchange for unlocking your full potential and your best life. Through life stories, and lessons of compassion, love, courage, and hope, maybe something inside of you will clock. Perhaps you will have a new perspective on what life has to offer. Maybe you will learn that the limits that are holding you back were placed there only by you.

I invite you to spend a little time on God’s Porch. I believe something amazing is waiting for you there.

Day 1 on the Porch

Faith and reason are often viewed as opposites. In the beloved Christmas film, Miracle on 34th Street, the lawyer Fred Gailey tells Susan, Faith is believing in something when common sense tells you not to. While there indeed is more to faith than common sense, it is also true that faith does not ignore reason.

Throughout my life, I have believed in many things that later let me down. Things like signs that say, World’s Best Coffee. I once believed that everyone liked sweat tea, whereas I found that folks north of Kentucky did not care as much for it. I would immediately offer my condolences and prayers.

Many things find a spot in our belief-o-meter that some would argue their existence. I am not talking about things we know are real, like good cobblers and the proof of Bigfoot. But I am talking of bigger things. Things like prayers that come true, healing that happens, and miracles that will change your whole world.

Take the teachings in Acts, for example, the first noted episode of "The Walking Dead"

Why should any of you consider it incredible that God raises the dead? ~ ACTS 26:8

In his defense before Agrippa, Paul appealed to both personal experience and Scripture. His argument from experience focused on his former life as a persecutor of Christians. His view changed when the risen Jesus appeared to him and said that He had appointed Paul to be a servant and as a witness of what you have seen and will see of me (v. 16). Paul’s message was not based on philosophical or theological speculation. He knew it was true because he had seen and heard the living Christ.

Yet at the very heart of Paul’s defense was an appeal to Scripture. The main reason Paul changed his view was his realization that the Christian message claimed: nothing beyond what the prophets and Moses said would happen—that the Messiah would suffer and, as the first to rise from the dead, would bring the message of light to his own people and to the Gentiles (v. 22–23). No wonder Paul said that his message was reasonable. Rather than being insane, as Festus asserted, the things Paul said were the sober truth. Paul had said no more than what God had already predicted in the Scriptures. Paul’s claims were also based on fact. The things he spoke about were not done in a corner (v. 26). They had been seen by many.

Reason alone will not lead someone to faith in Christ. That is why engaging in argumentation rarely produces converts. But we also know that the Christian faith is not unreasonable. The gospel message is based on facts and the sober truth of God’s Word. If you know an unbeliever, challenge them to study the Scriptures, and then believe!

Who knows, before long, they may believe in scripture as much as they do that Elvis is alive and well and living in the Bahamas. Although they’d be wrong. Everyone knows that Elvis lives in a Winnebago in Florida.

Day 2 on the Porch

Pastors are called many things. Some people address them as reverends, preachers, or even just brothers. Growing up, I remember visiting a church in a nearby town with a friend, where I recognized their pastor as someone my dad had bought a used car and a six-pack of liquid courage from. Dad called him his bootlegger, and the congregation called him Brother Fred. The term pastor comes from the Latin word for shepherd. While Brother Fred was definitely a man of many talents, this made me wonder if shepherd was the right word. Shepherds tend to their flock, while protecting them from the dangers of the world. Paul used this term to describe the work of the church leaders in Ephesus (Acts 20:28). Hoping to reach Jerusalem by Pentecost, the apostle stopped at Miletus and sent for the elders of the church of Ephesus. While he did not know exactly what lay ahead, he was certain that prison and hardships would be in his future.

Now I commit you to God and to the word of his grace. ~ ACTS 20:32

Paul’s tone was grave because he knew he would not see these leaders again. He began by reminding them of his own pattern of life and ministry. The heart of his message was a charge to keep watch (v. 28). Like ordinary shepherds, pastors must act as guardians over God’s flock. The threat from false teaching can come from both outside and inside the church. Personal ambition is a major motive for false teachers that arise within the church. They distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them (v. 30). False teachers are often motivated by greed. They enrich themselves at the expense of God’s people. Using language reminiscent of the prophet Samuel’s farewell address in 1 Samuel 12:1–5, Paul urged the church’s leaders to follow his example instead.

The apostle’s warning shows that one of the primary functions of the church’s leaders is to teach God’s Word. This is why 1 Timothy 3:2 says anyone who serves as an overseer must be able to teach.

In Ephesians 4:11, Paul says that pastors whose ministry is teaching are Christ’s gift to the church. Do you pray for your pastor? Pastors need wisdom from God’s Word and the courage to speak the truth. Maybe you can write a note or send an email to offer your encouragement and express appreciation for their ministry.

Who knows, perhaps the very guy that you buy a used Pontiac from on Tuesday and hollers the gospel on Sunday is the one we need to pray for the most.

Day 3 on the Porch

In the summer of, at best guess, about ’82 I learned a valuable lesson on forgiveness. I was around the age of ten or eleven, so the exact timing escapes me. But I remember the actions clearly. We were closing in on an event I had been looking forward to—the annual Bike-a-Thon in our neighboring town. At this event, people would sponsor you so much per mile to ride your bike, and it all went to a charity. I already rode my bike for miles on end daily. This would be a breeze.

Two days before the event, a friend borrowed my bicycle to ride to the store. When he got there, in hast, he laid it on the ground behind a parked truck. You can guess what happened next. The truck owner backed over my bike, leaving it crippled beyond repair. I was mad. My friend was embarrassed by his carelessness. But none of that helped my Bike-a-Thon dilemma.

Dad had been saving for a new radio for his car. The old one had gone out, and he had eight-track tapes that couldn’t’ holler without a new tape deck. And to my surprise, he took that money and bought me another bike from a junk dealer he frequented. It wasn’t new, but even this used bicycle was better than my old one.

I made the Bike-a-Thon. Raised a bunch of money. My friend who had been careless with my old bike even came to support me. I forgave him. Through a bad situation, I gained a lesson and a better bike. I had been shown grace by my old man and learned a lesson in forgiveness toward my friend.

That is much the same way Salvation works. Salvation is by grace. The gift we have received from Christ is so great that we could never pay it back. And although we cannot repay this debt, we still owe something to Jesus. As the old song says, Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe.

Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. ~ MATTHEW 6:12

In Paul’s letters from prison, we are reminded of all that we owe to Jesus. Many of the Christian duties Paul emphasized in his prison letters, especially in those sections that describe the nature of the Christian life, come together in the apostle’s appeal to Philemon.

Paul’s request calls for sacrifice on both parts. Onesimus sacrifices his pride by returning to his old master. Philemon will lose a servant if he sends Onesimus back to Paul. Commentators are divided on whether Paul expects Philemon to free Onesimus. Elsewhere, however, Paul warns Christians not to become enslaved and urges those who already are slaves to obtain their freedom if possible (1 Cor. 7:21–23). Paul tells Philemon to charge any wrong that Onesimus has done or debt he has incurred to Paul’s account. If there is shared loss, there is also love. Love for one another, and ultimately for Christ.

Isn’t grace a wonderful thing? Isn’t salvation even better? Bikes don’t last forever… but these two things are tied to eternity.

Day 4 on the Porch

I start most of my mornings by giving thanks. I usually start my morning prayer in praise, telling God what He already knows— how wonderful, powerful, and great He is. I usually tell Him I am aware He is the Creator of everything, Master of all, and I admit to Him that He could out fish me any day of the week.

I think it is important to give thanks in prayer. I start naming things so fast I almost feel like a hip-hop rapper—friends, family, my career, the food I eat, nanner puddin’, Nicholas Lou Saban, ‘69 Camaros… the list went on and on.

Throughout my life, I have